Events in more detail:

Lesbian lit with a laugh. U.S. based lesbian pulp fiction author Monica Nolan squares up to our very own rubbish lesbian Sarah Westwood….

The books:

The Rubbish Lesbian: Selected Columns by Sarah Westwood.

Funny, honest, and disarmingly revealing about her own insecurities; popular award-winning DIVA magazine columnist Sarah Westwood gathers together a selection from her hilarious back catalogue. Humorous columns explore the myriad of ways she feels like a rubbish lesbian and the uncountable ways other people are rubbish around lesbians. Topics include funny coming out stories, the mystery of lesbian sex, getting a lesbian haircut by mistake, a slippery grasp of boob etiquette, and playing the pronoun game at work.

At the Magdalena Arms Residence for Women, desires are awakened, passions run hot, and love might be waiting just a few doors away. . .

Dorian “Dolly” Dingle has been footloose and flighty for long enough. At last, she’s resolved to focus on her showbiz career and move out of the Magdalena Arms. Then landlady Mrs. DeWitt breaks her hip, and Dolly reluctantly agrees to fill in as temporary housemother. While she grapples with home repairs and holiday preparations, Dolly tends to the needs of her diverse tenants, including:

Arlene – She’s a buxom theater designer with some very dramatic secrets

Ramona – The former bad girl is back in Bay City and making tongues wag again

When the high-spirited residents learn of a scheme to shut down their beloved rooming house, they rally together to raise funds. Can a Christmas variety show save the only home Dolly has ever known? And will she finally find the perfect girl to occupy her heart?

Monica Nolan has written about film and culture for Release Print, Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, Lambda Literary, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her short story collection, The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories (co-authored with Alisa Surkis), was nominated for a Lambda Award. She lives in San Francisco and blogs about lesbian pulp fiction at www.monicanolan.com/pulppep.

Event 2

Queer Cities, Queer Cultures Europe since 1945

by Matt Cook and Jennifer V. Evans

An informal academic, standing book launch event at Gay’s The Word

Queer Cities, Queer Cultures examines the formation and make-up of urban subcultures and situates them against the stories we typically tell about Europe and its watershed moments in the post 1945 period. The book considers the degree to which the iconic events of 1945, 1968 and 1989 influenced the social and sexual climate of the ensuing decades, raising questions about the form and structure of the 1960s sexual revolution, and forcing us to think about how we define sexual liberalization – and where, how and on whose terms it occurs.

By exploring the queer histories of cities from Istanbul to Helsinki and Moscow to Madrid, Queer Cities, Queer Cultures makes a significant contribution to our understanding of urban history, European history and the history of gender and sexuality.

Jennifer V. Evans is Associate Professor of History at Carleton University, Canada.

Matt Cook is Senior Lecturer in History and Gender Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, and co-director of the Raphael Samuel History Centre.

Event 3

The Dilly -A Secret History of Piccadilly Rent Boys with Jeremy Reed

On the fringes of Soho, Piccadilly has long been London’s principal location for the illicit sale of sex, and Jeremy Reed explores the history of rent boys from Oscar Wilde’s notorious attraction to the place to the painter Francis Bacon’s predilection for rough trade. The book includes tales of Soho’s clandestine gay clubs from the days when homosexuality was illegal, the punters inexorably drawn to the area, the development of the secret slang known as Polari or Palare, as well as the Dilly’s influence on pop stars from the Rolling Stones to Morrissey.

The author examines the careers of a number of former male prostitutes who worked the infamous ‘Meat Rack’ and investigates what drew them to risk their lives. His study includes a chapter recording his friendship with Francis Bacon and concludes with an account of the demise of the Dilly trade, when male escorts booked online supplanted the boys hanging out on the neon-lit railings.

This is an exhilarating re-creation of the occupation of London’s tourist centre by lawless Dilly boys and a pioneering piece of countercultural history brought vividly to life through the author’s personal engagement – he himself worked as a rent boy in the early 1970s –as well as his strong sense of place, colourful imagery and poetic flair.

‘A very special, unique and astonishing book’ – Stephen Barber

‘An enthralling secret history of rent boys’ – Howard Cunnell

JEREMY REED is a prolific writer of poetry and prose, both fiction and non-fiction, with seven of his novels and five works of non-fiction published by Peter Owen. He has won the National Poetry Competition, the Eric Gregory Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. He is also the author of well-received biographies of Lou Reed, Marc Almond and Scott Walker.